Poland - July 2023

EU continues to block funds over rule of law concerns

The European Commission (EC) will continue to withhold funds from Poland, expressing concerns about the independence of the judiciary in its 2023 Rule of Law report, published by the EC annually since 2020. In addition to long-standing issues, where the report noted no progress on six of the seven recommendations from last year’s report, the EC report also raised new concerns, including the potential for the recently created commission for investigating Russian influence on public officials to be used against the opposition. Weaknesses in media freedom were also raised in the report. The EC has withheld funds under various funding mechanisms, including in January 2023 for Poland’s pandemic recovery, as well as withholding cohesion funds, designed to support poorer EU member states in October 2022.

Sources: DW, European Commission, Notes from Poland, TVN24, Financial Times